From a press release issued by Mat Mladin Motorsports:

2003 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship
Rounds 6 & 7 – Road Atlanta, Braselton, Georgia, USA
Final Qualifying and Round 6 Race Report


MLADIN SURVIVES HIGH SPEED REAR TYRE FAILURE AT ROAD ATLANTA

Braselton, Georgia, USA – Australia’s Mat Mladin miraculously survived a dramatic high speed rear tyre failure while leading the sixth round of the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Georgia.

The incident happened on the eleventh of the intended 25-lap race distance with the three-times American Superbike champion holding a four second lead over his rivals before his rear tyre exploded without warning at over 280kph (170)mph) as he commenced his run down the fast back straight.

Mladin fought to keep his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 upright and had managed to reduce his speed significantly before he entered the trackside gravel trap where the front end of his machine dug in and he was thrown from the bike which has suffered extensive damage to the rear as a result of the flying chunks of rubber.

“There was no warning it was going to happen as the tyre had felt good and I was comfortable with the lap times I was doing,” said Mladin, who escaped any injury in the incident. “We’re not sure why it has happened as we ran the same tyre a number of times during qualifying and practice and it was fine.”

“What I can say is that I feel very lucky that it exploded where it did, because if it would have happened 100 metres (110 yards) earlier, the walls are a lot closer to the circuit and anything could have happened. I did the best I could to save it and given that it was running on the rim at over 160kph (100mph) I think we did very well to get it off the track and into the gravel trap.”

“We’ve obviously got a bit of work to do now overnight, before tomorrow’s race, so we’ll put this one behind us and get back on with what we need to do with the championship.”

With Mladin forced out of the race lead, victory today went to his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Aaron Yates, who also has taken the points lead in the championship with 187, compared to Mladin’s second placed tally of 175. After taking the race lead from Mladin, Team Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom dropped back to second, followed by Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda) and Anthony Gobert (Ducati Austin) fourth.

The second race of this weekend’s 25-lap Superbike nationals takes place tomorrow morning, with Mladin confident that he can make a return to the winners circle.

Earlier in the day, Mladin had secured pole position for the weekend’s races, with a record setting time of 1-min 23.520-secs, finishing ahead of Eric Bostrom ( 1:23.944) and Gobert (1:24.304).